Papers

Village Savings and Loan Associations in Zanzibar
In the last few years, there has been renewed interest in searching for financial models that can be used to deliver sustainable financial services to the rural poor in Africa. One model that claims to be able to provide sustainable financial services to the rural poor  is the Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) model.
 
This report examines the performance of VSLA groups in Zanzibar after several years of operations independent of CARE. More specifically it examines the outreach of the programme including reaching poorer members of the community, its ability to provide useful services and produce change in the lives of users.
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One Step Beyond: Achievements and Challenges in Reaching Remoter Areas
This paper reviews six organisations in Kenya in order to establish how far they are reaching both in terms of geography and poverty.  It postulates the existence of a ‘frontier’ of provision for centralised models and discusses strategies for extending outreach.  In particular  the paper suggests that de-centralised  models have potential to provide services to poorer people and in remoter areas if improvements in their operation can be brought about at a price poor people can afford.
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One Step Beyond: Challenges and Opportunities in Promoting Quality Financial Services in Remoter Areas 
This paper examines the challenges and trade-offs for organisations seeking to provide financial services to more remote communities. It examines the depth of outreach of a variety of delivery models and reviews the relative sustainability, cost-effectiveness and security of each.
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‘Institutionalising Suspicion’: Investigating the role of social and cultural norms in the governance and management of user-owned microfinance systems 
The Decentralised Financial Services project is testing tools with which to improve the management and governance of community owned and managed microfinance organisations.  However, many of the problems that organisations such as ROSCAs, ASCAs, and Saving and Credit Co-operatives face are related to the operation of power and socio-cultural norms within their local environment.  In such circumstances, training members on their rights and responsibilities does not necessarily produce the anticipated results. This paper investigates the wider socio-economic, cultural and political context in order to consider how constraints to such ineffectiveness can be addressed and incorporated into the tools being tested.
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